Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Amazing Marcos Martin, Marvel's Newest Superstar

I don't talk about modern comics very much--there's tons of other blogs that do everyday much better than I can. But I do get a box every month from Discount Comic Book Service, and Amazing Spider-Man is always in there. I think one of the most talented artists working at Marvel these days is Marcos Martin.

Marcos Martin brings a crazy, kinetic style of energy on Spider-Man that hasn't been seen since the days of Steve Ditko. Coupled with Dan Slott's high-energy mania, this is a creator marriage made in comic-book heaven.

I was particularly bowled over by the above splash page, where Spidey is standing over a craps table. The story title and credits are cleverly laid out along the table grid. A very clever idea!

I really find Martin's innovative use of logos (such as the blood dripping off Spidey's masthead on issue 619) to be very much in the vein of Will Eisner. Eisner did all kinds of things with the Spirit's logo (or logo-forms as Alan Moore called them) by shooting them with bullet holes and having all kinds of liquids dripping from them.

The cover to the forthcoming Amazing Spider-Man Annual #37 does another twist on the logo, by turning it into a neon sign. Again, this cover seems very Eisner-like to me, with Spidey and Cap standing on different levels of a building.

You have to dig the old-fashioned shout-out to "Collector's Item Classic" here as well!

Marcos Martin has also done outstanding work on Dr Strange (The Oath mini-series with Brian K. Vaughan) and the Captain America 70th Anniversary special. Here's the black and white version of a page where Cap addresses the troops on a WW2 aircraft carrier.

There's a cool interview with Martin over at The Beat by Michel Fiffe. Like his fellow countryman, Carlos Pacheco, Marcos Martin appears to have respect for the creators who made these characters great. Nuff Said!